1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an apparatus that first vertically aligns from side to side pallets at the bottom of a stack of pallets supplied to the apparatus, then accumulates one or more of the stacks of pallets having the side-to-side aligned bottom pallets, then vertically aligns from front to back the pallets at the bottom of a stack as the apparatus delivers the stack of pallets to a pallet dispenser.
2. Description of the Related Art
A pallet or, more specifically, a shipping pallet is generally known as a rectangular portable platform that supports goods that are placed or stacked on the pallet. Prior art pallets are typically constructed of wood or plastic. Objects placed or stacked on the pallet are bound in some manner to the pallet. The objects can then be moved with the pallet, usually by a forklift. Pallets are conventionally used in the transportation of objects from one location to another, for example, in the transportation of goods from a manufacturer to a distributor.
Manufacturers typically keep a large number of pallets on hand for use in shipping their products. The pallets are usually stored in stacks. When needed, a stack of pallets is usually moved by a forklift to a pallet dispenser that dispenses one pallet at a time from the stack to a conveying system of the manufacturer. The conveying system moves the pallet to a location where the manufacturer's goods are stacked on the pallet and then bound to the pallet for shipping from the manufacturer.
There are a number of known different types of pallet dispensers in the prior art. For example, there are pallet dispenser constructions having four sides and a top opening. Pallet dispensers of this type are supplied with a stack of pallets on the top of the dispenser. A forklift usually will pick up a stack of pallets and place the stack of pallets on top of the dispenser. This type of pallet dispenser will move the stack of pallets downwardly into the dispenser and will separate a pallet from the bottom of the stack and dispense the pallet to a conveying system. As the dispenser dispenses one pallet at a time from the bottom of the stack, the remainder of the stack continues to move incrementally downwardly into the dispenser.
As the stack of pallets is moved downwardly into the dispenser, the bottom few pallets in the stack engage against and slide downwardly along guide surfaces inside the four side walls of the dispenser. The sliding engagement of the bottom few pallets along the guide surfaces centers the bottommost pallets of the stack as the pallets move downwardly so that they are properly aligned for dispensing by the pallet dispenser.
There are also known robotic pallet dispensers that pick up a pallet one at a time from the top of a stack of pallets and then place the picked up pallet on a conveyor. In order for a robotic pallet dispenser to operate properly, the stack of pallets from which the robotic dispenser picks up the top pallet must be sufficiently vertically aligned and placed at a specific position relative to the robotic dispenser so that the robotic dispenser knows the location of the stack of pallets and can separate a pallet from the top of the stack to dispense the separated pallet.
Prior art pallet dispensers of the types described above, as well as other types of known prior art pallet dispensers have the common drawback of the need to periodically replenish the stack of pallets being dispensed before the stack gets too low and runs out. If a pallet dispenser runs out of pallets, the pallet dispensing process stops, and likely the manufacturers entire pallet conveying and loading system stops. Therefore, the forklift operator who replenishes the stack of pallets at the pallet dispenser must keep a constant eye on the stack of pallets in the pallet dispenser and repeatedly return to the pallet dispenser to replenish the stack of pallets in the dispenser. This significantly limits the time a forklift operator can be away from the pallet dispenser completing other jobs.